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Louisiana-Lafayette loses big to No. 7 Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)

Louisiana-Lafayette seemed to be in a good place late in the
first half against No. 7 Louisville, using good perimeter shooting
and showing a fearlessness to build several small leads against the
defending national champions.

Unfortunately for the Ragin' Cajuns, they couldn't get more than
a basket ahead and their 41-39 edge disintegrated into a 54-47
halftime deficit that quickly got out of reach in the second half.
Within 6 minutes they were down by 21 and the hole got deeper in an
eventual 113-74 rout by the Cardinals on Saturday.

Louisville (8-1) has made good use of big runs known as `the
boom' to turn games around in recent years, and Saturday provided
another example as its fast pace on both ends wore down the Ragin'
Cajuns (6-3). After shooting 61 percent (19 of 31) in the first
half including seven 3-pointers, they hit 7 of 31 and just 2 of 16
from long range in the second.

''I felt like we had a good scouting report and a good game plan
in place for these guys,'' ULL coach Bob Martin said of the
Cardinals. ''We thought we could expose them in a couple of places
and they ended up exposing us a lot more at the end of the
day.''

Shawn Long's 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting led four Ragin'
Cajuns in double figures. Kasey Shepherd added 18 points, Elfrid
Payton 12 and Steven Wronkoski 10 for ULL, which was outscored
60-34 in the paint in falling to 0-9 against Louisville.

The Ragin' Cajuns entered with a four-game winning streak after
Wednesday's 89-80 win at Louisiana Tech, and scored 105 points
against Northwestern State in the preceding contest, performances
suggesting that they could keep pace with the Cardinals. Louisville
coach Rick Pitino was certainly concerned about them, hinting that
they could make things interesting for his team that's still trying
to shape its defense.

Indeed, ULL created some anxiety for Louisville after rallying
from an 18-9 deficit with a 23-14 run including five 3-pointers to
tie the score at 32.

The Ragin' Cajuns appeared to be rhythm in many ways and their
perimeter shooting opened up other areas. More encouraging was the
fact they seemed unfazed by any of Louisville's defensive looks in
leading four times after that.

J.J. Davenport, ULL's 6-foot-6, 325-pound reserve center, pushed
his weight around to contribute a couple of layups during the run.
Shepherd added five points including a 3-pointer while Long put the
finishing touches on a 16-point half with his second from long
range.

The Ragin' Cajuns' play got Louisville's attention and the
Cardinals went ahead for good with a 13-6 run for the halftime lead
that steadily grew bigger as their athleticism took over.

''At the end of the first half, we felt that we should have
maintained the lead or (be) right there, tied at the half,'' Martin
said. ''Obviously, we shot the ball well in the first half; the
second half we did not shoot the ball well. ... And they (the
Cardinals) played outstanding.''

Louisville shot 38 of 62 from the field (61 percent) and scored
32 points off 17 turnovers while outrebounding ULL 41-29.

''Our goal tonight because we weren't playing very good
defense,'' Pitino said, ''was just to try and fatigue them so they
would shoot a lower percentage and I think the guys did a good job
of that. Keep the pace up, keep it going, take advantage of their
foul trouble and pick-and-roll them to death.''

Bad as it turned out against Louisville, Martin believes his
team can benefit by the time Sun Belt Conference play begins. The
Ragin' Cajuns are already off to one of their better starts and
began well against the Cardinals but weren't able to finish.

That's something Martin promised to change.

''We can get back to the drawing board on defense,'' he said.
''We can build on it and certainly go back and learn from things
they exposed us on and get ready for conference play.''

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